Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Hey folks, Oxbow's Ride The Sky is still on hold, but EpicSessions.tv is going to be livecasting tomorrow (Wednesday) from noon HST to 3pm HST of our on site testing of the realtime jump data system. To note - Jake, Casey and Dave will be on shore running the cams and the data sysem. The riders will be both pro and am riders who we're letting try out the system. This isn't the Ride The Sky event, rather this is the next stage of trials for the new EpicSessions.tv broadcast data system.

Tune in to EpicSessions.tv from 12 noon HST to 3pm HST and watch the worlds best sailors experience the EpicSessions.tv motion tracking/broadcasting system. You'll see live video from Hookipa in addition to realtime jump data from all the riders on the water. They jump, you'll watch them and when they land, you'll see their jump height pop up on the real time jump display system.

Friday, April 22, 2011

Ok folks, its been a looooong month, but it looks like on Wednesday, April 27 conditions will come together to hold the Oxbow Ride The Sky.

This is a preliminary alert as event officials are still evaluating the forecasts from WindGuru to make sure we have proper conditions to enable our competitors to toss 'em big.

While this is a true event to see who of these twenty sailors can jump the highest, many of the competitors have their sights set on claiming the World Record jump height - so picking the best day is of utmost importance to the event officials.

Friday, April 15, 2011

Its now April 15, and we have the second half of the month left for Maui's fabled trade winds and winter swell to come together to hold the Oxbow Ride The Sky event at Hookipa. Competitors have been busy testing their gear to go big, and we'd like to give a shout out to Boujmaa and wish him a speedy recovery from his accident earlier this week.

The EpicSessions.tv crew has also been busy testing our groundbreaking realtime 3D motion tracking system - Jake and Casey have been up and down the north shore testing the system in all sorts of conditions so that when the event day happens, we'll be ready to beam realtime competitor jump heights around the world as it happens. Its pretty wicked to be 5,000 milwas away and watch the guys boosting air and when they splash down, seeing their jump height data pop into the realtime leader board moments after they land. Super cool stuff that we're stoked to share with the rest of the world with the Ride The Sky event!

For updates on the event, please sign up for our email alerts on EpicSessions.tv and stay tuned to our Facebook page. We're posting daily updates on the website and on Facebook now.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

The crew here at EpicSessions.tv is stoked to announce that Oxbow has partnered with us to livecast the Ride The Sky event, and to also provide the on-site technical support for the jump height measurement technology. We're also going attempt to do something that's never been done before in a board sports contest...

Real time performance data broadcasting while the event is happening.

Yup, that's right. When you tune in to EpicSessions.tv to watch the livestream of the Ride The Sky contest, you'll see a leader board which is updated with jump heights IN REAL TIME during the heats. When a rider jumps, their jump data is transmitted upon landing to our servers. The leader board will be updated within seconds of the jump and you'll know who's in the hunt for the cash from Naish!

But wait, there's more...

Since we can provide realtime leader board information to the viewing audience, we can also transmit it back to the competitors so they'll know their placement in the heat. A quick glance at their personal onboard display and they'll know their rank among the nine other guys in that heat. Just imagine how hard they'll push themselves and their equipment knowing that they're not in first place or just shy of advancing to the final heat. Think about it....

There's never been anything like it before...

It is going to revolutionize windsurfing contests...

We're utilizing brand new, never seen before technology from a new company which not only measures the sailor's 3D performance much like products we used in 2010, but this new product is more accurate and also broadcasts their jump height data in realtime.

For the first time, sports performance broadcasting is coming to consumer level sports. At this time, this technology isn't available for purchase, but you can bet that it will be available soon at an online retailer or sports shop near you. We can't talk anymore in detail about the product at this time, so don't ask. Just know we've been testing the crap out of these things since we got our hot little hands on them, and Jake nailed a 57.4 foot jump while wound up on a 3.7 at lowers just the other week. ;-)

This technology is going to change many sports outside of the sport we love of windsurfing. We're stoked that the company has exclusively partnered with EpicSessions.tv and the Jump Off format that we pioneered in 2010 to showcase the possibilities and lead the charge in what will be a radical shift in how sports contests are run and sports are consumed by viewers.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

A year ago, March 31 2010, we pulled off the first ever "Jump Off" at Hookipa. The riders were stoked to give this new contest format a try even though there was no prize money on the line. They did it for the stoke and the love of the sport. Levi cranked off a 52.7 foot back loop and Boujmaa boosted to 62.3 feet on a stock air. Everyone had an awesome time and we took the show on the road to Pistol River and was amazed at the top 10 riders all being 15 INCHES in height to eachother for their jumps. (that's a heck of a statement for the consistency of the waves and wind at Pistol!)

We then cleaned the sand out of all our gear and headed to Hood River for the Team Gorge Jump Off where we gave six teams 10 days to scour the Gorge in search of the best conditions to capture video and rider data that would be judged on 10 metrics. The Gorge delivered and so did the teams.

Here and there we also did the first ever live webcasts from Hookipa, Jaws, Arlington and had an epic time in Baja at the Lord Of The Wind Showdown in Los Barrilles where we learned just how far you can run a DSL line to the beach and keep it working enough to get a decent livestream signal out to the rest of the civilized world. A little duct tape can go a long way in Baja!

Since then, we've been quiet. But we've not been idle - heck no! We've been quietly working on the next generation of Jump Off's, new livecasting and new contest broadcasting technology. While our hearts are in Windsurfing, our sights are set on changing the way not only boardsports are covered, but also how these dynamic sports are consumed by viewers worldwide. We're mindful of the sponsors, the viewers, and most importantly, the riders - both pro and am. We're tackling the issues around consumer level products and services that amplify not only ourselves as athletes, but also raise up the sports that we love so much.

I'm exited to have added Casey Hauser to the ever expanding EpicSessions.tv team and also stoked about our new relationships with our partners. 2011 is going to be another ground breaking year for us, and everyone here is soooo stoked about the plans that now we're able to begin to bring to light.

I hope that what were doing here at Epic positively impacts your life, lifestyle and your experiences in, on and high above the water that is our playground.